Operation Rescue Loses Round in Appeals Court

A federal appeals court in San Francisco Thursday reinstated an injunction prohibiting Operation Rescue, the anti-abortion group, from blockading family planning clinics in seven Southern California counties.

An order from U.S. 9th Circuit Court Judges Mary Schroeder and Ferdinand Fernandez granted an emergency temporary stay of a Jan. 31 decision by a district court judge in Los Angeles which had voided the injunction.

In the Jan. 31 decision, U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima dismissed a lawsuit by the National Abortion Federation and other pro-choice groups that alleged that Operation Rescue’s actions violated a woman’s right to travel and her right to obtain an abortion.

American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Carol Sobel, who represents the pro-choice groups, said Thursday’s decision meant that the injunction would be in effect until the 9th Circuit holds a full hearing on the case.

Operation Rescue lawyer Victor Smith said he felt Thursday’s order was “just the court of appeals holding things in place in order for Operation Rescue to have an opportunity to respond to this crisis motion by the ACLU.”